Mystic Guide wins $12M race overseas
Eight thousand miles from the track he began his 4-year-old season, Mystic Guide neatly carried his Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort form overseas.
Trainer Mike Stidham’s Godolphin colt, sired by 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, put his name in early contention for the yearend prize with a victory Saturday night in the $12 million Dubai World Cup. Ridden by Luis Saez, the favorite rated the early pace before charging to a 3 3/4-length tiumph at Meydan.
“That was our plan,” said Saez, who rode Mystic Guide for the first time in a six-length victory Feb. 27 in Oaklawn’s Grade 3 Razorback Handicap. “Rate and get in that position. He relaxed waiting for the top of the stretch. I know he’s going to give me that kick. He did it. He’s a champion.”
Mystic Guide clocked 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.61 without a run-up, scoring a Group I victory to go with his American Grade 2 triumph in last year’s Jim Dandy at Saratoga. African Storm won the 2014 race in the same time over a synthetic surface. Thunder Snow, winning the race twice, went 2:01.38 on dirt in 2018.
The Oaklawn victory, Stidham said, and previously undefeated Maxfield’s first career defeat in New Orleans swung Godolphin’s decision to go in the World Cup. It was the record ninth World Cup win for the Maktoum family’s private stable.
“He’s a young horse,” said Saez. “The last time I rode him I knew he would be a Grade 1 winner. I know he’s going to get better and better.”
Said Stidham, making his first trip to Meydan, “I had a good feeling when I saw him lying in third on the backside. Then down the lane it was amazing.”
American Horse of the Year Cigar, winner of the 1995 Oaklawn Handicap, won the inaugural World Cup in 1996 during a streak of 16 consecutive victories. Curlin, the 2007 Arkansas Derby and Rebel winner at Oaklawn, won the 2008 World Cup in repeating as Horse of the Year. Last year’s race was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.